


'tis the damn season

by Sneakyfox55



Series: Never Forget [5]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Because of Reasons, Christmas Party, Cuddling & Snuggling, Engagement, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, I Do, Idiots in Love, Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, New Year's Fluff, Protective Sans (Undertale), Vagueness, Worried Sans (Undertale), don't you love it when the timeline's all over the place, holiday fluff, just a bit, oop there's surprise angst be careful, plot elements, sans is a sweetheart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:21:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28081581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sneakyfox55/pseuds/Sneakyfox55
Summary: One time, you spent the holidays with your fiancé and friends.(Not that you'd remember.)
Relationships: Reader & Other(s), Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Series: Never Forget [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1879786
Comments: 31
Kudos: 17





	'tis the damn season

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JMRulz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JMRulz/gifts).



> MERRY CHRISTMAS/HAPPY HOLIDAYS (and early Happy New Year)!
> 
> i couldn't go with my original plan for the main story because i'll be late in writing the next few chapters, which i kind of explained in there buuuut: we now have a holiday-themed sidefic for UTDC, yaya! i kinda knew that i'd eventually have to do something Christmas/holiday...y, and like i also said before JMRulz actually helped me come up with the idea for this so, huge thanks to them! they've been a big part of my inspiration in general, please go show them some love ^^
> 
> hope you guys like it even if it's not much _and my brain was obviously in jelly-mode when i wrote it_ , and i hope you guys have an awesome holiday! <3
> 
> (and hopefully this next year will be better s o b)

You took in a breath to prepare yourself, sweat beading on your brow despite the cozy atmosphere.

Just out with it, she said. It would be fine, she said.

Yeah, well.

Easier said than done when you’re not in a room full of people who are all staring at you, expecting big news of some sort. Easy for her to say when she wasn’t flipping _engaged_ and didn’t even know _THAT_ _was the big news here._

...Ugh. No, you should have just calmed down. This wasn’t even a bad thing, you were just being overdramatic; they’d be happy anyway, because this was _you_ , and this was _him_ , and they had been begging for this because they were a bunch of meddling children. (Need you have reminded yourself of how they were the ones that basically set this up in the _first place_?)

_Looking at you guys specifically, Undyne and Alphys._

And now, here you were, on the verge of blurting the truth because Undyne had apparently waited too long for this (her words). And apparently, you were pretty bad at lying. At least over this.

Part of you still wanted to object—to insist waiting until midnight itself, or some similar dumb excuse like that again. But, to be fair, it _was_ Christmas... Ish. (Actually New Year’s Eve, but still.) You’d promised them a “gift” around the holidays and you _had_ waited long enough, right?

(Not to mention, you had agreed with him to tell everyone this week, so...)

You tossed the people around the table one last rove of your gaze, latching onto your favorite fellow human’s smile in particular as the child gave you an encouraging thumbs-up.

You smiled back, somewhat reinforced by their own belief in you.

“Yeah, so uhhh—I have, something to tell you all?”

_Great start,_ you told yourself.

_Shut up,_ you also told yourself.

“We—kind of mentioned, before, that—there’s a surprise? Sort of?”

Undyne looked wholly unamused, sipping on her alcoholic eggnog while regarding you with a raised eyebrow. Oh, how you wanted to let her know that your stumbling was _her_ fault, for putting you on the spot.

“Sans—uh—we’re...”

No, no, _no_ , this wouldn’t do.

How could you do this without making a fool of yourself...?

Well,

when in doubt, show, don’t tell. Right?

In a split-second, spur-of-the-moment idea, you ruffled through your pocket...

And in one swift movement, you slapped (rather, slid) it right onto your ring finger, proceeding to hold it up for practically the entire world to see.

There was a collection of various reactions. Almost everyone gasped first, and then:

Alphys _squealed_ ,

Frisk started bouncing in place, signing something too quickly for you to decipher,

Toriel was all smiles, spouting warm congratulations as any mother would, and Asgore was much the same,

Papyrus had _leapt_ to his feet, almost knocking over his chair in the process; once freed he lit up as if you’d just given him _another_ present for Christmas, and nyeh-heh-heh’ed a positively joyous, “ _YES_!”

and Undyne spilled her eggnog all over the table in her haste to stand up as well.

“ _HELL_ YEAH!! I FU—”

“U-Undyne!”

“UUUURREAKING KNEW IT!”

Alphys, Toriel, and Frisk shot her a glare in turn, making her sharp toothed grin turn just a bit sheepish.

“Uh, sorry. But like I said—”

Before you could blink she sprinted towards you, yanking you off your chair, noogieing you in an equally-painful-as-was-endearing way,

“I KNEW it!” she boasted right in your ear. “It’s about _time_ , nerd!”

“Y-yeah, uh—thanks? Can you put me down?” you wheezed out, hoping the ringing you were hearing now wasn’t permanent. She cackled before setting you back down, sprinting to the kitchen suddenly—hopefully to clean up the spilt eggnog.

Meanwhile, it took all of two seconds before another monster with about the same energy lifted you back up.

“DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT?!” he exclaimed, spinning you around and around. “ _YEARS_!”

A giggle caught his attention, directing him to Frisk as they signed, _Aren’t you being a little overdramatic?_

“OF COURSE NOT! I AM ALWAYS THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF DRAMATIC!! NYEH-HEH-H—WAIT.”

He froze suddenly, releasing you quickly. You stood trying to regain your balance and lose your dizziness as his eyesockets narrowed, scanning the room.

Suspicion clouded his expression.

“WHERE _IS_ HE?”

Good question.

As a matter of fact, you were silently asking that too.

One minute he had been lounging in the recliner, separate from the group, and the next he was gone; disappeared from one plane of existence to another.

And you’d be lying if you said you weren’t a _little_ annoyed with him for leaving you.

Sure, you were confident enough, but your general people skills and ability to articulate what exactly you wanted still _sucked_. You weren’t typically anxious or shy, but you sometimes disliked talking to others all the same—empathy and emotions were not your strong suit, that was for sure.

~~Of course, anyone here would have disagreed with that, but still.~~

At least Sans was good at knowing what to do.

...Usually.

Then again, this was also the guy who had _dropped_ your engagement ring when he tried to propose, so maybe not.

“HEY!”

You whipped around to see Undyne back with yet another winning smirk—though, now a bottle of champagne accompanied her as she pointedly showed it off.

“Uh,” you supplied, and she laughed. Quite manically, you thought. “Shouldn’t we save that for midnight?”

“ _What_? Not _scared_ , are ya?”

Your scowl deepened.

...Only to broaden into a grin.

“I could use a glass or two.”

(You could swear you heard Alphys mutter an _Oh no_.)

Undyne proceeded to punch you in the shoulder, cackling once more as she ran back to her side of the table to start pouring. And while Toriel was giving Frisk the usual You’re Not Old Enough speech after they asked for their own shot, you managed to recover and hopped back into your own chair.

_* * *_

For not drinking much, you held alcohol rather well.

Of course, naturally, you stopped at the third glass. As much as you weren’t fully _drunk_ yet, you were starting to feel a bit fuzzy; a bit lighter, too. Only problem with going farther than that was the fact you knew you would have no filter past this point, so you had to back off rather quickly even as Undyne continued to down several more.

Granted, you had never had a _true_ experience with being drunk—you always seemed to suspect you had a limit of sorts, and you never pushed it, knowing you could render yourself vulnerable given the chance.

You couldn’t chance that, for several different reasons.

And almost all of those reasons were sitting around you at this very moment.

Therefore, you set your wineglass on the table, notably not reaching for another—not having your “cowardice,” Undyne narrowed her eye at you. “You already giving in _again_ , punk?!”

You smiled back at the clearly buzzed fish monster, leaning back in your chair. “ _I’ve_ told you already: I’d rather not embarrass myself, unlike you.”

Frisk apparently got a kick out of that, because they snorted their sparkling grape juice right out of their nose. They continued giggling silently to themselves, shoulders shaking with mirth as they wiped their nose with a napkin.

Toriel sighed—though of course, not without a smile of her own.

“In all seriousness, Undyne,” she pointed out, brushing some crumbs off the table into her hand, “easy on the champagne. Frisk may be a bit older now, but I would prefer we do not have an incident like _last_ time.”

She proceeded to head off to the kitchen, whilst you sat there for a minute, processing this information.

_Wait, what? “Last time?”_

Were you not here for that???

Confused, you mouth the words _Last time?_ at Asgore, who was the only one that caught your eye. His response was to give you _a look_ , so you decided not to ask further.

“So, (Y/N).”

You glanced back at Undyne, her looking at you with a curious glint in her eye now—a question for you clearly on her mind. You tried not to get too wary and waited for her fated inquiry:

“How’d the bonehead ask you anyway?” she asked, voice slurring subtly as she leaned her chin into her hand and watched you like you were about to spill some sort of secret. “Noo, wait, let me guess; he made some sort of pun about going to the moon for a—”

You snorted. “Pfft—no? If he _had_ done something that dumb, I’d have clocked him over the skull. But nah, it was worse. He—”

Your phone rang.

At first you thought nothing of it—at first, you thought it might ironically be _him_ , somehow, even if it didn’t quite make sense. You almost hoped it was him.

You wished it had been.

...

It wasn’t.

It was an unknown number.

...

Still, it... Didn’t mean anything.

It couldn’t.

You silently reassured yourself, giving everyone an apologetic look. “Sorry, I have to take this,” you told them, not waiting for a response as you excused yourself from the table.

You headed down the hallway, putting your phone up to your ear, and saying a somewhat tentative, “Hello?”

...

. . .

Nothing.

Just...

Silence.

You hung up, and stood in the hallway for a moment, your back facing the living room.

There was the shuffling of footsteps on carpet behind you.

A hand touched your shoulder, turning your blood to ice.

“hey, you okay?”

The relief was almost palpable, it warming you just as quickly as you’d froze.

You turned, stuffing your phone back into your jeans as you smiled brightly. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

Sans tilted his head slightly, studying you.

“...tori said you got up and left. without saying anything.”

...

What?

“But I said—... But I got a phone call?”

He stared at you again, blinking.

“she didn’t mention a phone call.”

You met his gaze with a blank look of your own.

“But I just—” you tried, automatically stumbling over your words. “...It was _just_ ringing, I...”

You cut yourself off.

You must look like an idiot.

You were probably just imagining it.

It was probably just your own paranoia.

It was probably...

“i believe you, hun.”

“...You do?”

You... Almost didn’t believe _him_.

Surely, he would’ve thought you were just—

Sans derailed that train of thought, taking your right hand gently in his left. “you’re crazy, but not _that_ crazy,” he chuckled.

You chuckled with him, albeit more nervously.

“Half the time, I’m not so sure.”

He huffed out something akin to another laugh, eye-lights flicking downward as he thought. “...maybe you just had it on vibrate or something and no one noticed.”

But you’d distinctly heard it _ringing_ , how...

...

No. He was right.

He had to be.

...Even still, you couldn’t stop the anxiety spiking through you, rendering you speechless for a moment.

He immediately, of course, took note.

“what’s wrong?”

Your immediate response, of course, was, “Nothing.”

Obviously, he did not buy it.

He used his free hand to brush the hair out of your face, gently tracing his thumb along your cheek. “who called? do i need to beat ‘em up for you?”

“No,” you laughed, “no, it’s—it was just a wrong number, it’s fine.”

“you sure?”

“Mhmm.”

You tried not to let his soft gaze deter you, even as his voice lowered to something more tender.

“alright. ...but, uh. i’m... i’m always here if you need me, okay?”

You knew that. You knew he could probably tell things _weren’t_ so fine right now; you knew he wasn’t an idiot, and the last thing you wanted to do was treat him as such. ~~Even if you might already have been, ultimately.~~

You knew that no matter what, he’d stick this out with you—no matter how crazy you seemed, or how crazy you made him.

Still, you kept your mouth shut, and smiled.

“Okay. Anyway, where have you been?” you changed the subject fluidly, hoping he’d go with it. "Don't tell me you missed your own memo."

“nah, forgot something,” he supplied, a little too quickly, you thought. But honestly, you were too mentally tired to look into it—so you just rolled your eyes at him, pretending to believe the explanation.

“Of course you did,” you teased and flicked him lightly. “Leave me to be _ribbed_ here while you’re at it, why don’t you?”

He flicked you on your arm in retaliation, smile turned up mischievously. “hence why i took my time.”

“I don’t like you right now.”

“harsh, but ok. i’ll just be taking that back, then, if you don’t mind...”

Following that sentence, he put in the barest minimum of effort to take your ring off your finger, obviously failing when you immediately snatched it back and captured his offending hand.

“It’s pretty so _no_. I keep it.”

And just for good measure, you kissed him right on the teeth before dragging him with you back into the dining room; as for the skeleton you decided to now hold as prisoner, he let you pull him without restraint, grin notably more dopey.

_* * *_

“Twenty seconds left!” Undyne shouted at the top of her not-lungs, everyone jumping at the noise before promptly raising their glass of champagne in anticipation.

You simply sat waiting on the couch, your friends talking and laughing excitedly around you. A big smile stretched across your face as you watched the timer on the TV tick by; only to falter as Undyne next announced ten seconds left.

_10 . . ._

Your eyes flicked briefly to your phone, tucked snugly in your pocket, but still visible.

_9 . . ._

You might not have been safe anymore.

You knew that.

_8 . . ._

But you wanted this moment to last, so, so badly.

7 . . .

~~It couldn’t.~~

_6 . . ._

The arm wrapped around you tugged you closer, and you could hear him ask a silent question.

_5 . . ._

_are you okay?_

_4 . . ._

You weren’t. Not really.

But you smiled back at him, because you couldn’t show that.

_3 . . ._

You smiled, real and warm, because when you looked at him, nothing else mattered.

You smiled because you would risk anything for him.

~~Even you.~~

_2 . . ._

_Yep. I’m good._

_1 . . ._

Everyone (save for you and Frisk) drank their champagne at the same time, just as a round of fireworks boomed distantly outside. Not even a second later, everyone started whooping and celebrating; Papyrus helped Asgore activate the glow sticks and pass them around—the majority of them ending up with Frisk, somehow—while Toriel sat idly, watching the ruckus with amusement. Undyne promptly lifted an instantly-flustered Alphys to spin her around in a pseudo dance, looking happier than you’d ever seen her.

You simply remained on the sidelines with Sans, still trying to be as enthusiastic as everyone—still hoping that, somehow, you _could_ be again, one day.

“hey. you forgot something, sweetheart.”

Turning your head once more, you quirked an eyebrow at your fiancé. “What?” you said dubiously. “ _How_ , I—”

He didn’t let you finish.

Instead, he tilted your head towards him and leaned in, planting a toothy kiss on your lips.

“that,” is all he murmured, only pulling away from you slightly to continue gazing at you like a star struck schoolboy.

“Ah. Of course,” you chortled before you leaned further into him. “Happy New Year, bonehead.”

Thoroughly satisfied, Sans’s simple response was to bury his skull into your hair. “i love you,” he sighed wistfully, voice heavy with pure adoration.

You didn’t even hesitate.

“I love you too.”

And you buried yourself in him too, the remnants of your fear washing away, slipping into nothing but love.

You weren’t sure what the future would hold for you.

You weren’t sure this would last forever, but...

You were certain of one thing:

You didn’t want to be anywhere else, with anyone else. You did not dare to imagine a future without this, without the people around you; without him.

You were right where you wanted to be in this moment.

So...

Yeah.

You were good.

**Author's Note:**

> OH ALSO--i was waiting for the perfect opportunity aaand,
> 
> as an added bonus/present ya'll who've not seen it yet can have [this cheesy playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLysNP-JQuyIoUI_sD_O_HyEo9B0LItTrT) i compiled of songs that fit with the main story and/or give me inspiration for it :'D it's about as self-indulgent as the actual story-- _but this is only the special edition spoiler-free™ one because r e a s o n s_  
>  (just as a heads-up, a lot of the songs are just there for weird symbolism/irony in a way, don't take them too seriously lmbo--)
> 
> ~~and surprising no one probably, yes, i'm a swiftie~~


End file.
